FEMA Warns: 130 Million Without Electricity For YEARS Following Solar Storm

A massive magnetic solar storm could knock out much of the US electrical grid and leave 130 million people in the dark, a report from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) concludes.

The Federal Interagency Response Plan – Space Weather 2012 was released due to a Freedom of Information Act request and apparently is the Department of Homeland Security’s strategy for dealing with such a storm. The request was filed by the AboutHomelandSecurity.com website.

The plan is based on the conclusions of a NASA-funded National Academy of Sciences study calledSevere Space Weather Events—Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts from 2008 and a previous DHS study from 2011.

The FEMA report referenced a scenario prepared by a scientist named John Kappenman that suggested a massive solar flare could dramatically affect the US electrical grid.

“According to the Kappenman and Radasky studies they find that a future extreme space weather event, similar to the great magnetic storm of May 1921, could result in large-scale blackouts affecting more than 130 million people in the United States,” a fact sheet attached to the response plan states. It also notes that such a solar storm or coronal mass ejection could knock out more than 300 extra-high-voltage transformers.

Those 130 people would be without power “for years.”

Although such scenarios often are viewed as the domain of alternative media, the now-public report has received mainstream coverage, including by Bill Gertz in the Washington Free Beacon.

The 2011 DHS report noted that some researchers, such as Kappenman, believe parts of the grid could be down for months or years following a major solar storm.